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Census battle: Unlikely hero for unlikely civil war

OTTAWA – An unlikely national cause – the census – now has an unlikely hero in what may be erupting into open battle between politics and bureaucracy in the nation’s capital.

With his abrupt resignation on principle this week, Munir Sheikh, Canada’s chief statistician, is emerging as a symbol of public service defiance amid what seems to be an escalating political challenge to civil servants this summer by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government.

Even as the dust from the census controversy continues to swirl, for instance, Treasury Board President Stockwell Day announced in a statement on Thursday that he was rethinking affirmative action policies in the public service.

“While we support diversity in the public service, we want to ensure that no Canadian is barred from opportunities in the public service based on race or ethnicity,” Day said in a statement.

New Democratic MP Pat Martin called it a “full-frontal attack on affirmative action.”

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This new salvo raises questions about whether the government has simply decided to go for broke in a battle against the bureaucracy in Ottawa and – maybe more significantly – whether Sheikh’s resignation has emboldened more public servants to fight back.

Gary Corbett, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service, talked to representatives at Statistics Canada on Thursday in the wake of Sheikh’s departure and said the mood there is a combination of fear and growing resistance to alleged political interference.

“He’s only one of many, I can tell you,” Corbett said, when asked about Sheikh’s departure. “This is the way this government is working. There are many, many people that are kind of growing tired of this. We’re seeing it happen in other areas too. I’m really glad that someone stood up.”

Sheikh walked away from his job as StatsCan chief, one of the most senior public service posts in government with an annual salary between $200,000 and $235,000, to protest the Harper’s government’s move to eliminate the mandatory long-form census. Though details of his departure remain private, it’s believed unlikely he would have received any parting benefits or severance, because he quit.

There was much talk of bravery among public servants in the wake of Sheikh’s exit this week. He is not the first public servant to get on the wrong side of the Harper government – indeed, that list is long, ranging from Canada’s former nuclear regulator, Linda Keen, to the former RCMP public complaints chief, Paul Kennedy, to Doug Tipple, the civil servant from Public Works awarded $1.4 million this week for wrongful dismissal by the government.

But Sheikh is the first in Harper’s government to quit, rather than be fired or face non-renewal of his post.

Alex Himelfarb, who served as top bureaucrat for prime ministers Jean Chretien, Paul Martin and Stephen Harper, called Sheikh’s decision “notable, unusual, sad and admirable.”

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“In Canada our professional non-partisan public service was guided by the principle of ‘fearless advice and loyal implementation,’” said the former clerk of the Privy Council. “This is based on the belief that governments work best when governments have access to the best information and advice available—including what they may not wish to hear. And in the end, democracy demands that the public service implement loyally whatever lawful decision the government makes—whether the public service agrees or not. That’s how it works when it works.”

Sheikh’s departure appears to be evidence that something is broken in that chain, says Maryantonett Flumian, a veteran former senior civil servant, who now heads the Institute on Governance in Ottawa.

“It’s a sad day if the management of the issue overtakes any discussion,” she says, wondering why Statistics Canada, and its chief, were obviously caught unaware of the Harper government’s political decision to scrap the mandatory long form of the census. “Where are the decisions being made? What role are the public servants playing?” she asked.

Flumian says she has the same questions about the abrupt announcement on rethinking affirmative action. “These are important values that Canadians hold dear,” she said. “It’s okay to move society, and it’s even okay to want to move society in a direction that it may not immediately want – that’s called leadership – but shouldn’t public servants be involved in that discussion?”

The tension between politics and bureaucracy has been the worst-kept secret in Ottawa since the Harper government came to power. In an interview to mark one year on the job, with CBC Radio’s Rex Murphy, Harper openly acknowledged it:

“Probably the most difficult job… practical, difficult thing you have to learn as a prime minister and ministers, our ministers as well, is dealing with the federal bureaucracy,” Harper told Murphy. “It’s walking that fine line of being a positive leader of the federal public service, but at the same time pushing them and not becoming captive to them. ... I could write a book on that one.”

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